Hisae Ikenaga

Hisae Ikenaga - Only Wood III

Técnica: Collage on paper

Biografía del Artista: Hisae Ikenaga often works with everyday objects, altering them to give them different meanings and uses. She has worked on various series: confronting industrial and artisanal production processes, humanizing objects, using “global” objects (objects bought in global chain stores that she manipulates and then arranges their parts in different ways to give new insights into the particularities of everyday life) and possible genetic anomalies in mass-produced objects. Ikenaga works in a Duchampian legacy. Duchamp is the father of the practices of appropriation of manufactured objects, which is also present in the Mexican artist's practices with furniture. Ikenaga breaks them down and articulates their parts to give them an anthropomorphic aspect, or even turns them into an instrument of artistic participation. Her other line of reflection on the object leads to an artisanal production of elements whose references come from nature, all through the use of markedly artificial materials. Ikenaga's work is not exclusively playful and even less melancholic. Imbued with the futility and transitory nature of Japanese art, its various manifestations seem to participate in a fluctuating way in both motivations. Hisae Ikenaga (Mexico, 1977) graduated from the National School of Painting, Sculpture and Engraving “La Esmeralda” in Mexico City, and furthered her studies at the Kyoto University of Art and Design. In 2003 she completed a postgraduate degree at the University of Barcelona and in 2004 a Master’s degree in Theory and Practice of Contemporary Plastic Arts at the Faculty of Fine Arts, UCM Madrid. She has had solo exhibitions in different places, such as Matadero (Madrid, 2011), La Casa Encendida (Madrid, 2009), Praxis International Art (New York 2011) and has participated in exhibitions in exhibition spaces in Germany (Kreativquartier, Munich, 2014), Mexico (Museo del Chopo Mexico City, 2011), Hong Kong (Para/Site Art Space, 2009), the United States (Praxis Gallery, NY, 2008) or Japan (Prinz Gallery, Kyoto, 2001). She currently lives and works in Metz, France. She has won awards including First Prize Generation 2008, Obra Social, Caja Madrid, Spain; the award at the I Biennial Azcapotzalco and the Foreign Studies Award (Kyoto) awarded by CENART in 2000; In addition to the scholarship awarded by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, he recently completed a residency at the Pistoletto Foundation, Biella, Italy.

Hisae Ikenaga often works with everyday objects, which she alters to give them different meanings and uses. She has worked on various series: confronting industrial and artisanal production processes, humanizing objects, using “global” objects (objects bought in global chain stores that she manipulates and then organizes their parts in different ways to give new opinions on the particularities of everyday life) and possible genetic anomalies in mass-produced objects. In her latest works, one can see an interest in representing the production of tubular metal furniture to reflect the boundary between design and art as an everyday object. Irony and absurdity always play a key role in her work. Ikenaga works in a Duchampian heritage. Duchamp is the father of the practices of appropriation of the manufactured object, which is equally present in the practices that the Mexican artist carries out with furniture. Ikenaga breaks them down and articulates their parts to give them an anthropomorphic aspect, or even turns them into an instrument of artistic participation. His other line of reflection on the object leads to an artisanal production of elements whose references come from nature, all through the use of markedly artificial materials. Ikenaga's work is not exclusively playful and even less melancholic. Imbued with the futility and transitory nature of Japanese art, its various manifestations seem to participate in a fluctuating way in both motivations. Hisae Ikenaga has exhibited in numerous international institutions in Spain, France and Mexico. She recently presented her installation Archealogical Manufacturing at the Rotondes Centre culturel luxembourgeois, Luxembourg. In 2021 she was awarded the First Prize Art In Situ by the Luxembourg College of Architects at the Forum da Vinci. The "Only Wood" project consists of a multitude of pages from interior design, architecture and DIY magazines in which Hisae Ikenaga removed everything that was not made of wood.